Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Robert W. Baird

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by equities research analysts at Robert W. Baird in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $280.00 price objective on the electric vehicle producer’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective points to a potential upside of 80.12% from the company’s current price.

TSLA has been the subject of several other research reports. China Renaissance started coverage on Tesla in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Tesla from $200.00 to $180.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Tesla from $200.00 to $189.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $195.00 price objective (down previously from $270.00) on shares of Tesla in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, HSBC lowered their price objective on Tesla from $143.00 to $138.00 and set a “reduce” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Tesla presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $197.15.

Tesla Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:TSLA traded down $1.66 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $155.45. The company had a trading volume of 81,818,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 101,829,563. The company has a market capitalization of $495.08 billion, a PE ratio of 36.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 2.39. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $180.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $213.04. Tesla has a 52 week low of $152.37 and a 52 week high of $299.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.25.

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $25.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.64 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 16.62%. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Tesla will post 1.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Tesla

In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,188,215.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Tesla news, SVP Xiaotong Zhu sold 687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.11, for a total transaction of $121,674.57. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 63,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,188,215.81. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Robyn M. Denholm sold 93,706 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.73, for a total value of $18,247,369.38. Following the sale, the director now owns 15,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,920,950. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 209,098 shares of company stock worth $38,802,534 in the last three months. 20.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,806,372 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $57,102,287,000 after acquiring an additional 3,866,361 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 99,683,820 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $20,680,162,000 after acquiring an additional 685,454 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Tesla in the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,844,757,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Tesla by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 30,160,747 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,546,823,000 after purchasing an additional 2,177,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Tesla by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,040,734 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $7,266,572,000 after purchasing an additional 269,182 shares in the last quarter. 66.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Tesla Company Profile

Tesla, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells electric vehicles, and energy generation and storage systems in the United States, China, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Automotive, and Energy Generation and Storage. The Automotive segment offers electric vehicles, as well as sells automotive regulatory credits; and non-warranty after-sales vehicle, used vehicles, body shop and parts, supercharging, retail merchandise, and vehicle insurance services.